Wikipedia:Identifying and using style guides: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 02:56, 7 July 2018

Revision as of 02:56, 7 July 2018

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Our articles should steer well clear of subjective pronouncements about what is "proper", "incorrect", "standard", etc. – even when some of our sources wander into that territory. Beware also claims about "American English", "British English", etc. made by style guide authors who are not linguists (e.g., ''Garner's Modern English Usage'', though quite comprehensive, is written by an attorney). Most linguists do not agree with the idea that orthography (spelling, punctuation, etc.) is a matter of dialect (nationwide or otherwise), but of publishing-industry standards – i.e., of commerce.

Similarly, MoS is written to provide advice on what to {{em|do}} when writing articles here (and sometimes why), without editorializing on propriety or legitimacy. Please keep this in mind if you work on improving the Wikipedia Manual of Style.

In a few cases, editors with a bee in their bonnet about the "legitimacy" or "wrongness" of some particular style nit-pick (especially along nationalistic lines) have been [[Wikipedia:Banning policy#Topic ban|topic-banned]] from editing about that peccadillo, or even banned from MoS-related discussion as a whole. Avoid [[Wikipedia:Disruptive editing|disruptive editing]] about style, especially [[Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Article titles and capitalisation#All parties reminded|personalization of style or article-titles disputes]]; [[Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/Discretionary sanctions|discretionary sanctions]] have been authorized to deal with MoS-related disruption: [[Wikipedia:Administrators|admins]] have leeway to unilaterally issue bans and blocks.